From The Advertiser tonight, those responsible for finding savings have been told to;-*Identify routes which are barely used and could disappear completely*Compare and contrast Bus routes with tram and train lines that follow a similar path and could be providing commuters with multiple means of getting to the same location*Reorganising timetables on routes where buses are often half empty*Co-ordinating timetables between train,tram and bus services with the aim of keeping all 3,but staggering their availability times*Night time bus patronage reviewed to determine if some late-night services are necessary

I think some school bus services need reviewing. For example in the afternoon on Brighton Road 3 school buses line up for schoolchildren from Sacred Heart College going to Marion Centre.Often the 3rd bus is almost empty,and the other 2 not full. I am sure there are other examples.

So they would look at routes like the 224, which competes or compliments (depends on your views) the train between Mawson Lakes and Salisbury?

The 263/265 services along Anzac Highway? They were cut on nights and weekends (I think) and returned. And made a Go Zone.

Does anybody remember the service cut backs of the 90s which decimated public transport and discouraged the use of public transport? I think the surviving remnant of that is the 443. From memory, that used to run all day Sunday!!

I can understand that you would want to cut routes that are not being used.

But, you are offering a public service. There are people that struggle to get to their closest bus stop. They won’t be able to walk the extra 500m or so to another service.

bigrobbo wrote:So they would look at routes like the 224, which competes or compliments (depends on your views) the train between Mawson Lakes and Salisbury?

The 263/265 services along Anzac Highway? They were cut on nights and weekends (I think) and returned. And made a Go Zone.

Does anybody remember the service cut backs of the 90s which decimated public transport and discouraged the use of public transport? I think the surviving remnant of that is the 443. From memory, that used to run all day Sunday!!

I can understand that you would want to cut routes that are not being used.

But, you are offering a public service. There are people that struggle to get to their closest bus stop. They won’t be able to walk the extra 500m or so to another service.

Notably a number of the routes mentioned are late evening shortworkings which appear to exist only as a means to get a bus back to depot.

852L/HL1/HL2 all use country fares, so would show low patronage on the Metrocard system while still retaining decent passenger numbers. Can't speak for the HL1/2, but the 852L is certainly used by students.

People are always up in arms about service cuts, but if a route is running to an area with high car ownership and no one is using it why should it be retained? Purely for the so called "social benefit", where it serves no benefit as no one uses it? Money has to be saved somewhere, it's a finite resource. Yes low-patronised routes such as the 752 shouldn't be cut all together, but should be investigated to perhaps be peak only, or midday only if that's what the community want. Or perhaps routes with very high peak frequencies that run half-empty should be cut, thus maximising the use of current resources. Yes, maybe one day they will need more services, but if they aren't being used now why should they be maintained?

As for train/tram/bus competition, it should be looked at. Our train lines are rather inconveniently placed as far as where people want to actually go. Westfield Marion, Colonnades, Arndale, FMC, QEH, LMH, and countless other passenger generators are nearish to train lines, but not near enough to be convenient. Yes this shouldn't have been allowed to happen, but it can't change now. So hence you end up with 224/228/150/721/254/etc following the trainlines' basic route, but servicing the centres where the trains can't. Perhaps they should be looked at being made into feeder routes, but passengers hate transferring. Especially in Adelaide. It's a bit of a Catch 22. And that's before even mentioning access to different services in the CBD

My enthusiast perspective tells me that there should be major service increases everywhere so that everyone everywhere can have frequent services. However my logical, unbiased perspective says that some cuts should be made to routes that aren't being used. Should every route run to a profit? Of course not, but should routes which aren't even offering a community service be retained?

It's an interesting theoretical discussion, who can say what the outcome will be. In any case, the routes mentioned were, as The Advertiser said, only their analysis of low-patronised routes, and not routes the DPTI highlighted.

These routes alone will not give the Government the savings they are looking for. They are no doubt going to look at other routes.Another area,although minor is Christmas Day/Good Friday- these need a separate timetable as the useage on these days is extremely small and I would suggest you could reduce frequencies by 1/2 on most services(and probably cut out some small ones).

Does anybody remember the service cut backs of the 90s which decimated public transport and discouraged the use of public transport? I think the surviving remnant of that is the 443. From memory, that used to run all day Sunday!!

Yes! I remember these dark days when so many one way loops were brought in for Night, Sunday & Public Holidays - Several come to mind - 140 to cover 141/142, 178 to cover 176/177/179, 297 to cover 241/296, 402 as mentioned on here already, 504 replacing 505/506, 509, 546... the list goes on. I hope we don't revisit these dark days again.

I get that if services are running near empty then buses need to be used elsewhere, but hopefully it's not just a massive cull.

Looking at the list given a lot of them are late evening services where they are often the last service i.e. 415H, 451A, 557S, 721L. I'm also not sure what the difference is between 725A and 725 unless 725A has no connections?

if it was allowed extend the 545 to salisbury to cover the 415 and 415V path but as a day round service 7 days a week.selected services extend onto the city BEYOND Tea Tree Plaza and the same applies on the return journey.i have been on the 415 back in the serco days and sometimes patronage when there were no school students was such a joke.

Skexis wrote:All up 725's terminate at ORI, connection or not. Anyway I reckon I could easily save 30+ hours per day from the current timetables whilst still improving the services provided.

As in deducting time? Is it even possible for an AdMet service to have excess time in the schedule, even when it's an inbound H1 at 11PM with the same running time it has at 7:45AM? This would really put the speed limit drivers to the test...

Not deducting time per se even though a lot of routes have surplus time allotted to them as it then becomes more likely a service will run late during periods of heavy traffic. It's more like aggregating and scrapping with a bit of re-routing. It's all conjecture anyway as I see no reason to share info that I will receive no recognition or reward for. That figure was just the Outer South by the way.

TAXPAYERS are paying at least $100 a passenger on about 10 South Australian bus services as the State Government prepares to cut its least patronised routes.

Almost 100 services cost more than $50 a passenger to operate, with the Government only recouping 20-25 per cent of its bus expenditure in fare revenue across all services.

The Government will not reveal exactly which routes are the most expensive until it determines which ones it will discontinue, while specific costs have been deemed commercial in confidence because of a tender for bus services going out next year.

The figures follow The Advertiser’sanalysis of Transport Department data pinpointing 19 bus routes with few passengers, the majority of which run in the Adelaide Hills.

Adelaide Hills Mayor Bill Spragg, said the routes running at a surplus should subsidise those running at a loss.

Transport Minister Stephan Knoll said the figures highlighted the “financial mess” left by the former Labor government that he had been left to clean up.

“We’re seeking to protect South Australian taxpayers given some services operate at a significant cost to the taxpayer,” Mr Knoll said.

The Government will aim to save $1.1 million this financial year by cutting some routes and adjusting others, with that savings target to swell to $14.8 million per year from 2019-20.

The bus route review will be completed by the yet to be established South Australian Public Transport Authority, which Mr Knoll has said is crucial to providing a “more modern and innovative public transport network”.

Mr Knoll said the efficiencies would be accompanied by investments in public transport where there was the “greatest need” for more or better services.

“We will invest more in areas where more capacity is needed as we’ve already done through the Gawler line electrification project and Flinders Link,” he said.

“We’re also delivering public transport fare reductions, the introduction of maximum 30 minute train frequency on all lines, as well as a host of local infrastructure upgrades.”

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said earlier this month that the public transport cuts would “hurt everyday South Australians”.

“These cuts will be a blow to the many South Australians who rely on public transport to get to work, medical appointments, school, university and to visit family and friends,” he said.

“These cuts will have a massive impact to commuters across metropolitan Adelaide — from the shift worker who relies on his late-night buses to get home from work, to the nurse who relies on public transport to get her to a hospital for her early morning shift.”